Alive and Well
by Voltairus
Summary: A brother and a sister's struggle to adjust to the zombie apocalyspe.
1. Chapter 1 A Little Afternoon Fun

"Count 'em."

"What? No."

"Just do it. It makes it more fun." Chev said, turning his attention away from his scope to his younger sister, who was preoccupied with her phone, sitting on a lawn chair.

The two siblings were stationed on a rooftop of a Convenient, overlooking the small commercial district of their town. Below them were some sixty zombies, scattered across the area. They wandered aimlessly, mouths agape, groaning. Their ghastly appearance and their numbers were their only form of intimidation. For the most part, they were slow, and as dumb as doorknobs. The fast ones were the ones to worry about.

"Honestly, who do you text? There's no texting in the zombie apocalypse."

Lacy looked up from her phone and at her brother, who was leaning against the edge of the two foot high concrete wall, his hunting rifle still pointing towards the street. "Angie." She said flatly.

"No shit. She's still alive, good for her. She's so damn loud I'm surprised she doesn't have an army after her."

Lacy scoffed at her brother's remark. "She's with her two brothers and other people."

Chevy returned his attention to his scope. "That's why she's alive. Every teenager who has played any zombie game or watched the movies are sure to live. Her two brothers were well prepared." Chev aimed his rifle at a lady who was rather large. She wore a torn white shirt that was stained in blood. Her skin was blue and her jawbone was exposed. "Hey Lace, check this one out. Fat chick, seventy yards away at ten 'o' clock by Rudy's Meats."

"I'd rather not, I already know what's gonna-"

BAM!

She was cut off by the sound of her brother's gun. They both dropped to the floor of the roof, in order to avoid detection by the other zombies.

"Got her, count it up sis." He whispered over to his sister.

"Ass, I wasn't ready. I almost cracked my phone."

"Like you didn't know it was coming." Chev retorted.

After a few more minutes of hiding, the two resumed their previous positions.

"Look, a few of the zombies that were close to the fat chick started to eat her. Cool."

"I refuse, why must you always come up here and do this?" Lacy asked.

"I'm just th-"

"I know, just thinning the herd. Why don't we just leave this place?" She said, cutting her brother off.

Chev was silent for a few seconds, actually thinking on this one. He looked back at his sister, the midday sun beat down on her dark brown hair and fair skin. Her sunglasses hid her eyes but he knew she was giving him that look. That look that reminded him so much of their mother.

He gave a sigh. "Take a good look around. This is what it looks like everywhere. No place is safe, not even our own home. I know you're seventeen and at this point in your life you think you know everything and what's best, but I'm the one in charge. Have I ever had an error in judgment? Have I put you in any danger to date? I'd love to leave Lace, but that means we have too start over. We can't do that yet." He paused, noticing that Lacy crossed her arms and turned away. "Lace, come on." Chev got up and walked over to her, putting his hand on her shoulder. She put her hand up to her forehead. Her brother spun her around to face him and he hugged her. "It's not so bad. We can do whatever we want now, hell we could get a bigger house if we wanted."

She put her arms around him now, some tears escaped her and rolled down her cheeks. "I hate this." She managed to say, holding back as many tears as she could.

Chev wiped the remaining tears from her face and pulled away. "Come on kid, lets go home. Maybe we can go shopping some time this week and meet up with Ang."

Lacy sniffled a bit. "That sounds nice." She said softly.

"You okay?"

"For now."

"Alright, we'll go home in one minute, let me just take care of something." Chev went back to the ledge and reached inside a satchel that housed his ammo and other weapons. His hand retracted, revealing a grenade, with a small recording device crudely taped to it. He checked to see if the group of zombies were still feeding then pressed PLAY on the device, pulled the pin and let soar.

"Hey, hey, hey! Zombies, check this out! Fresh meat!" The recorder blared as it sailed towards the zombie pack. The grenade bounced a bit on the ground before the zombies. They ran to it, trying to see where the voice was coming from. "Hahahahahah." The recording laughed maniacally, "Got ya!" Some other zombies surrounded it, bringing the total to six.

BOOM! SPLAT! Critical hit. Blood and body parts covered the area.

"Alright lets go sis." Chev grabbed his satchel, strapped his gun around his back, and folded the lawn chair that Lacy used and carried it as well. They walked to the back of the roof and used a pipe to slide down to the ground, where the car was waiting. They packed up and drove off, leaving no trace of them, minus the dead zombies.


	2. Chapter 2 On The Homestead

The car purred as Chev hit the gas and zoomed down Lakeshore Boulevard. Driving became more of a hobby these days seeing as there was never a rush to get anywhere unless ones life depended on it. Most cars had been cleared from the roads and rotted along side the road or in ditches. Freeways were trouble and inaccessible, so residential streets had become the new ones. Occasionally the two would come across a nice car like a Range Rover but they never could find the keys. They stuck with an old Grand Am.

They arrived at their house shortly and pulled into the driveway. Chev hit the garage door opener and entered. Once out of the car, Chev would shut the garage door and make his rounds outside. He'd check for damages to the high wooden fence that surrounded the yard, the traps by the gate, the alarm system, and of course, his small tomato garden. Everything seemed to be fine, he reached into his satchel and produced a small handgun.

"Lace, take this and go check in the house. I am going to go get barbed wire from the shed and put some on the fence. Please put the phone away." Chev handed his little sister the gun. She gave it a look of disgust, as if it were a used tissue. When she didn't take it, Chev threw it back in the bag and sighed, "Nevermind. I'll do it, stick close."

The house was a small Bungalow built after WW2. The windows were all boarded up and the yellow siding was getting dirty. However, there wer e no signs of a break in on the outside. Chev grabbed his rifle and went to the front door, Lacy following closely behind. He unlocked the door and entered, bringing up his rifle. The living room was empty. Just a couch, chair, coffee table, and TV. Lacy felt as though it was safe enough for her, so she plopped down on the couch and pulled out her phone, her brother continued to scour the house for any intruders. Bedroom, clear. Bathroom, clear. Kitchen, clear. Basement, clear.

Chev returned to the living room where Lacy was. "Alright, I'm gonna do some yard work. Don't make too much noise." Lacy gave him a thumbs up. Her brother shook his head and exited into the yard via the kitchen door.

The shed was full of tools and objects, enough to open a small shop. Chev put on some protective gloves and grabbed a staple gun and the coiled barb wire before heading to the front yard. Once there, he layed the coil down and picked up one end in one hand, staple gun in the other, and began to staple it to the top of the five foot tall wooden fence. After thirty minutes he had finished about half the yard, the most vulnerable parts were taken care of at least.

Next, it was time to water the garden, referring to the four small tomato plants. Chev went into the house and grabbed two gallons of water out of one of the two fridges. He went back to the garden and pulled the weeds and started to distribute the water. His mind wandered off to simpler times and to the outbreak.

It all started at a greasy spoon type of restaurant in the mid-west. Some rat got into the bread crumbs, which were used to bread chicken, which was carried out to the people. The people spread it to the city and the second Bubonic plague was among man kind. This was sixth months ago. Chev could hardly believe that over the course of two months a whole nation could be almost wiped out, let alone the whole world population. For four months, the two had been on their own in Hell, Ohio. Hell, USA. Hell, Earth. Family and friends succumbed to the disease, died, and came back to life.

Chev had to transform from a skinny college student to a body builder/ soldier. He was still young, 22, and weighed only a mere 150 pounds. However he worked out almost every day in his basement, and practiced his gun skills when he could, like earlier today. Once he finished watering, he then went in the house to wash up.

These days, washing up was a problem. The water had been shut off, and any other water source you could find was probably infected. That is why they could only use bottled water, and lots of it. Chev only tried to use around six the most. One to wet your hair, two to rinse your hair, one for your body, and two to rinse the body. Lace would usually use close to double that, which was a problem. They would have to make water runs about once a week until Chev introduced showering every other day. Water was scarce, and they had been taking all the bottled water they could find. Water\was used it to wash clothes, dishes, themselves, hygiene, gardening, cooking, and drinking. Seeing as they now had a limited supply and almost depleted the nearest store of it, they needed a new way to get water or they would run out eventually.

As Chev put a towel around his waist and looked in the mirror, he noticed his hair was getting unmanageable. When he was all dried off and dressed he went to the living room to his sister.

"It's time for another haircut."

Lacy put down an old magazine, "Alright." She got off the couch with a small huff. Chev picked up on it, but didn't say anything. He sat in a chair and put a small sheet around him. Lacy got some scissors from the kitchen and stood behind Chev.

"Cut it shorter this time so we don't have to do it as often."

Lacy complied and started running her fingers thru her brothers hair, finding a good lock to start off with. She had gotten better at cutting hair nowadays. When she first started off, it looked like Chev had a fight with the lawn mower and lost. Now she learned to layer it like a regular beautician. Fifteen minutes later, she was just finishing up. She kicked at the clumps of hair at her feet while she tousled her brother's hair to make it look better.

"There you go, if you don't like it, don't worry. Who do you have to impress?" Lacy said with a smirk.

"Thanks Lace, I'd give you a tip, but money means nothing anymore." Chev rose up from the chair, shook his head and got a broom and dust pan to dispose of his hair.

"So what's for dinner?" Lacy asked.

"Anything we can make in the oven or microwave that uses a small amount of water." Chev replied.

"How about hot dogs?"

"Alright, that's only about two bottles of water. Hot dogs it is." Chev reached into the freezer got out three hot dogs. Next he got out a pan, put it on the stove, and emptied two water bottles in it. Then he turned on the oven, hoping the generator would work so he didn't have to check it. Success. This was turning out to be a rather good day.


	3. Chapter 3 A Long Night

The night that ensued was rather unsettling. A storm blew in late that night, offsetting the mood of the two siblings'. The wind howled and roared as it twisted around the outside of the house. Rain heavily bombarded the area, sounding like a million snare drums outside Chev's bedroom window, which was semi boarded up.

That was one of the things that pissed Chevy off the most, no more weather channel. You could only forecast during the day which would determine the plans for that particular day. If your guess was wrong then you wasted valuable daylight and resources.

For what seemed like hours, Chevy tossed and turned in his queen size bed. It was usually comfortable, seeing as he liberated it from a mattress store a while back, but tonight, it felt as if it were solid concrete. Finally, he gave up his futile efforts and raised his head to check the time. "Only 3:20? Damn." he said in a soft whisper, his voice not yet warmed up. Chev threw the covers off of him and sat up for a few seconds, rubbing his eyes to get accustomed to the dark. He sheepishly rose, lazily grabbing the rifle that sat propped up against the wall next to his clock. Finally adjusting to his surroundings, Chev was able to make his way out of his room quietly in order to check on his sister without waking her up. As he stepped out into the narrow hallway and over to his sister's room, he felt a chill. Something didn't seem to be right.

Chev hastily approached Lacy's door and slowly opened it, making it give a prolonged creaking noise, contributing to the unease that now plagued him. To his relief, Lacy was fast asleep and even snoring, something he could poke fun of later if she irritated him. Turning his body back out into the hall, Chev then went on to check the rest of the house. As he went downstairs lightning illuminated the living room, giving him the appearance of a sunlit room for a split second. The light from the storm was able to pass through the spaces of the windows that weren't shielded with wood. The living room seemed to be fine. Chev warily walked over to the front door and peered out the view port.

A torrential downpour seemed to flood the streets almost, backing up the sewers. Immense puddles formed in the yard as rain unrelentingly pummeled the earth. Zombies could drown themselves if they looked up with their mouths agape long enough, Chev thought to himself, smirking. Just as he was averting his attention back inside, a dark figure dashed out from his peripheral vision causing Chev to whip his head back towards the door.

The figure stopped moving, standing at the entrance to the yard, ignoring the heavy rain that seemed to soak it. Chev noticed the figure did not have the mannerisms of a zombie, for it stood straight without swaying. It was dressed in a black leather trench coat with a hood that was pulled up, covering it's features in a shadow. Chevy deemed from the figure's shoulders and overall size that it must have been a man. The mystery man also had his hands stuffed in his pockets, heavily breathing, which could be seen by the way his chest expanded and retracted so quickly, making him bob slightly. It almost looked las if the man was staring at Chev, like he knew he was there. Chev backed away from the door to change his positioning by moving to a window. However, when he peered back through one, the mystery man was gone.

"Why didn't he have a gun with him?" Chev pondered out loud to himself. Thoughts ran through his head. Does he know about us? Is he infected? Will he come back? What moron goes out in the rain like that? Worried about what might be coming for him and his sister, Chev spent the rest of the night sitting on the couch with his gun on his lap. Overly tired from the lack of rest, he soon succumbed to sleep, letting his head fall back onto the couch and his mind drift into an unconscious state.


End file.
